“Nevertheless, we like to know who’s in town.”

“Now you know. Dino has been in touch with Massimo Bertelli about Marcel duBois’s and my problem with Casselli.”

“Oh, good, that will save me the trouble of informing him.”

“I guess so. Are you going to tell me what you—rather, what Lance—wants?”

“It’s partly to do with an expansion of my job. The Agency wants station heads to be more concerned with what happens in Europe as a whole, rather than just in our individual bailiwicks. We’re beginning to think of the European Union as more of a United States of Europe, rather than a lot of independent countries.”

“Well, that’s very cosmopolitan of the Agency, Rick, but what the hell does that have to do with me?”

“It’s like this: France has some very comprehensive laws dealing with organized crime.”

“Doesn’t Italy?”

“Yes, but it’s more difficult for the Italians to enforce them. The Mafia there has long penetrated government at every level. They’re doing the best they can to root them out, but they have a lot of hurdles to overcome.”

“Go on.”

“Bertelli and his people have assembled intelligence indicating that Casselli wants to spread his influence to other European countries, especially France.”

“Why France?”

“It boils down to the recently discovered fact that Casselli wants a personal base here. He particularly likes Paris, but the attitude of French law enforcement toward him would make it difficult for him to live here, even for short periods of time. He would like, over time, to penetrate French society and, eventually the civil service and the legislature, with an eye to making France more hospitable to him and his friends.”

“That sounds megalomaniacal to me.”

“Of course it does, but Casselli has a lot of confidence in his own ability to manipulate things.”

“Once again, how does this affect me?”

“Casselli wants to co-opt people like Marcel and you, who do business here and who move from country to country easily. Casselli can’t even visit Paris or London for fear that his name would be on some watch list that would get him detained at the airport.”

“Why doesn’t he just drive?”

“Of course that would be easier, if he were just visiting, say, for pleasure, but French hotels collect their guests’ passports and send the names to the police every day, so eventually his name would cross the desk of some civil servant who is on the lookout for people like him, and he’d find himself dealing with the police and the court system.”

“Come on, Rick, get to the point.”